This past Sunday, some 90,000 people attended the memorial for Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. One of those in attendance was Chicago Cubs rookie third baseman Matt Shaw. Shaw missed his club's 1-0 loss in Cincinnati. The Cubs are assured of making the playoffs which begin next week, and hold a small lead over the San Diego Padres for the first Wild Card spot in the National League, but the whole situation did not sit well with New York Mets veteran announcer Gary Cohen.
During Tuesday night's Mets-Cubs game, Cohen decided to use his SNY platform to weigh in on Shaw's decision. "Shaw had Cubs world in a tizzy this weekend when he was not here for the Cubs game with the Reds. A game they lost 1-0 and in which his lack of presence was felt."
Cohen makes it sound as if the Cubs might have won, if only Shaw had played. I' m not sure exactly how that was the case. The Reds did not score their one run on an error by Shaw's fill-in at third base. Shaw is only hitting around .225, with an OPS near .680. Nothing great by any means.
Next, Cohen relayed: "It was later revealed that he had been given permission to attend Charlie Kirk's funeral. And I don't want to talk about any of the politics of it, but the thought of leaving your team in the middle of a race for any reason other than a family emergency really strikes me as weird."
Gary Cohen wasn't sold on the way the Cubs and Matt Shaw handled his absence to attend Charlie Kirk's memorial.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 24, 2025
"I don't want to talk about any of the politics of it, but the thought of leaving your team in the middle of a race for any reason other than a family emergency,… pic.twitter.com/D5av7DMJyg
Cohen then went on to bring his booth partner into the mix, Todd Zeile, who played in the Major Leagues from 1989-2004. Zeile said that from his experience as a player, Shaw's actions were unusual and unprecedented. He pointed to the fact that back when he played there were no maternity or bereavement leave provisions. Both men also focused on the fact that fans and media were not made aware during the game, that Shaw was not there and not available on the bench.
Cohen asked Zeile if the fact that Shaw is a rookie, "Makes it more, or less egregious." He went on to lament that the Cubs had to play a man short that day (no replacement player was allowed to be brought up because Shaw's situation did not qualify for baseball's bereavement list) because it wasn't family, and added, "So I think that, in and of itself, gives you a clue as to how it was received by a lot of people."
Well, it turns out that to Matt Shaw, Charlie Kirk was indeed family. Speaking in defense of what he did, Shaw revealed on Tuesday that he and Kirk were close, had lived in the same apartment area in Arizona, and that their faith brought them together. Kirk would text him after games. He also revealed that Charlie Kirk's widow Erika had requested that he attend the service.
Maybe next time Gary Cohen will give someone like Matt Shaw the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he will consider that there was a real relationship, actual or perceived, and that since the team signed off on his absence, Matt Shaw did nothing, "weird" or, "egregious" at all. Maybe Cohen actually has no clue as to how this was perceived by a lot of people. I wonder what Gary Cohen would have said if the 2020 season had not been shortened due to COVID, and memorials for George Floyd were held in September of that year, during the pennant race, and a player, or players decided to skip a game to attend one of them. If I had to bet, I' d bet he would not call it weird or egregious.
